Oligarchy or democracy gone bad?

At my age, I really shouldn’t care too much who rules this country from next year. The reason is, of late, I have been characterised as singing praises for the Jubilee regime in the past, but if so, I have no apologies to make.

Indeed, I voted three times for Jubilee, but I never regarded myself as a political activist; I just didn’t like the alternative and voted with my conscience though some people will say it had more to do with following the tribal herd mentality than anything else. I won’t apologise for that either. Most people voted for their tribal kingpins and nobody is taking them to task over it.

However, like every normal human being, I would like my offspring and their dependents to enjoy a country that is at once better organised and viable. In an ideal situation, I would be completely disinterested over who becomes president, knowing full well that it won’t be me.

I know for sure that the authorities won’t give me a parastatal to run, for I never learnt how to steal with quiet efficiency. Also, the time is long past when I could have sold air to the government for a few cool millions though I would not have been punished for it. Nobody ever is, unless they unwisely decline to share the loot.

Banana republic

But I do not like it that my beloved country seems to be always teetering on a tightrope between becoming a certifiable banana republic and an autocracy, or both. As a result, I have decided on a highly personalised diatribe this week for which I crave my dear readers’ indulgence.

My feeling is that we are heading towards a system in which politicians corruptly enrich themselves outside the rule of law through kickbacks, bribes and outright plunder of the public purse. I have yet to decide whether ours is a kleptocracy or merely a democracy gone horribly wrong.

However, the greater danger is that we seem to be in a hurry to become a kakistocracy which is defined as “a system of government by the worst, least qualified and most unscrupulous” individuals. That is what will happen unless we are very careful about who we elect next year.

The worst scenario, however, is to sink into anarchy during which there will be no rule of law and the Hobbesian state of nature will obtain, where life is “nasty, brutish and short”. This situation arises when every individual believes that he or she has a natural right to everything, regardless of the interests of everyone else, hence the grabbing mania which is long an established feature of our public life.

Needless to say, we are not there yet, but unless we are careful, it may happen sooner rather than later. It is a very short step from an oligarchy, which is defined as a power structure in which a few families, individuals and businesses perpetuate rule over their countrymen by creating rules that will only benefit themselves and their cronies at the expense of the rest of society, to outright dictatorship.

Oligarchy

Even more sinister is that an oligarchy is a closed “community” which few “outsiders” are allowed to penetrate. If you are not already wealthy, you cannot be accepted in this class however hard you try, for you will always be regarded as an intruder.

This fact alone seems to be the philosophy underlining the “Hustler Nation,” except that the ones preaching such a philosophy are already members of the ruling class who enjoy plenty of privileges and are quite keen to continue doing so under a different regime, which gives the lie to the entire movement and its hortatory excesses.

I really have no problem with the hustler movement except for one thing: I sense a high degree of hypocrisy among the characters pushing it, and see very little difference between those who would be king and those who already are.

What I do not quite see are any moves to empower the common citizens so they can make intelligent choices for themselves, for there seems to be a deliberate effort to make them remain ignorant and poor forever, presumably the only way to keep them under subjugation. Is there any hope for redemption in this stark atmosphere? Is there a messiah somewhere in the wings waiting to intervene on our behalf? He or she has not yet made it known.

Let me be like our politicians who pass legislation raising taxes and then start asking the government tough questions when voters complain. I really have no idea how to stop this seemingly inevitable slide into anarchy, or at best, to authoritarianism.

The fact that our politicians seem to have taken to heart Niccolo Machiavelli’s pithy observation that “politics have no relation to morals” means there will be no end to the skulduggery that has come to characterise their behaviour, which is chiefly dictated by the size of their ego and avarice. Now many are raring to join what they think is the “winning ticket” a year to the elections, and they have little time for anything else.

[email protected].